Towards possible opportunities in nuclear materials science and technology at an X-ray free electron laser research facility

Spectroscopy and imaging of condensed matter have benefited greatly from the availability of intense X-ray beams from synchrotron sources, both in terms of spatial resolution and of elemental specificity. The advent of the X-ray free electron laser (X-ray FEL) provides the additional features of ultra-short pulses and high transverse coherence, which greatly expand possibilities to study dynamic processes and to image non-crystalline materials. The proposed SwissFEL facility at the Paul Scherrer Institute is one of at present four X-ray FEL projects worldwide and is scheduled to go into operation in the year 2017. This article describes a selection of problems in nuclear materials science and technology that would directly benefit from this and similar X-ray FEL sources. X-ray FEL-based experiments are proposed to be conducted on nuclear energy-related materials using single-shot X-ray spectroscopy, coherent X-ray scattering and/or X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy in order to address relevant scientific questions such as the evolution in time of the irradiation-induced damage processes, the deformation processes in nuclear materials, the ion diffusion processes in the barrier systems of geological repositories, the boiling heat transfer in nuclear reactors, as well as the structural characterization of graphite dust in advanced nuclear reactors and clay colloid aggregates in the groundwater near a radioactive waste repository.